To sterilize many foods, pharmaceuticals and other products, to make them “shelf-stable,” the products are subjected to a sterilization method by heating the food in its sealed container to a predetermined temperature. The product is held at this temperature for a product specific duration. This process is commonly referred to as an autoclave process, retort process or a sterilization process.
It is known to reciprocate product back and forth within the retort during the sterilization process by actually moving part of the internal retort structure that supports and secures the product baskets. In retorts in which multiple product baskets are loaded into the retort end to end along a reciprocating axis of the retort, it can be difficult to remove all slack, gaps or play between the product baskets prior to closing the retort door and beginning the retort process. When the reciprocating process begins the momentum of the product baskets tends to cause the product baskets to become more tightly compacted against each other in the reciprocating direction, creating the potential for gaps to form at opposite ends of the basket set between the basket set and the basket holding structure. These gaps form at the end of each stroke of reciprocation and can create an undesired level of force and vibration when the basket set shifts relative to the internal retort structure that is also moving. Specifically, the moving mass of the product baskets can be caused to slam against end located stop structure at the end of each stroke. Because the basket loads tend to be quite large, the impact created can be quite large. Supporting the baskets on roller supports during such movement while at the same time preventing lateral shifting of the baskets can also be difficult.
Accordingly, what is needed is a mechanism that can help eliminate gaps created by the reciprocating process. It would also be advantageous to provide a roller support system particularly adapted to improve loading, unloading and reciprocation of multiple basket loads.